November 1818 - December 1819

John Keats and Fanny Brawne met at Wentworth Place in October or November 1818. Initially somewhat repelled by Brawne’s youthful high spirits, wit, and strong opinions, Keats was drawn to her beauty and developed a deep love for her.

Books were Brawne’s favorite topic of conversation (she wrote a friend, “there is nothing I like better to talk about unless it is to such a very great judge that I am affraid [sic] they will think all my delightful criticism nonsense” (Richardson, Fanny Brawne, 49)) and it was perhaps their conversations on poetry and literature that brought the two together.

Keats and Brawne may have become engaged on Christmas 1818, which Brawne described as the happiest day she had “ever then spent,” but there is no real evidence to confirm this.

In April 1819, the Dilkes moved out of their half of Wentworth Place, and the Brawnes moved in, now sharing a wall with Keats and Brown. Keats and Fanny were together nearly every day, and passed time in the garden at Wentworth Place or walking over Hampstead Heath. This period was one of Keats’s most productive, during which he wrote “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” “Ode to a Nightingale,” “La Belle Dame Sans Merci,” and others.

When Brown let his half of Wentworth Place for the summer, Keats travelled to the Isle of Wight in July. During this period, he and Brawne corresponded frequently. He returned to Hampstead in the fall.